Breaking Through and System Rewards

Alden closed his eyes and focused on merging the particles of mental energy that floated around him.

In his head, he imagined all the little spheres surrounding him merging into the mental core one by one.

In the blink of an eye, ten minutes passed.

Alden opened his eyes to see his result.

The little white spheres floating around him had disappeared, and they had all merged into the mental core. The mental core floated in front of Alden. The size increased. It was the size of a cue ball, and it shone way more than the little spheres separately.

"Sigh!" Alden sighed. "It's not as easy as I thought." He muttered. Merging the little spheres was more challenging than he thought, and it was way more time-consuming than he anticipated.

And on top of that, after merging dozens of little spheres, the mental core only got to the size of a cue ball.

But Alden did not plan to give up. Now that he had a chance to get stronger, he would invest every second he had.

He closed his eyes once again and now focused on cultivation.

One hour later.

During the hour, Alden had gotten better. Now, he did not need to first gather the particles of mental energy and then merge them.

Now, when the particles of mental energy got around him, he directly merged them with the cue-sized mental core in front of him.

Alden opened his eyes. A smile instantly curled up his mouth.

The mental core, which was the size of a cue ball, after cultivating for an hour, was now the size of a soccer ball.

"Great!" Alden exclaimed happily.

Swoosh!

Everything changed suddenly, and Alden found himself lying on the bed.

As soon as he opened his eyes, an intense pain surged throughout his whole body.

"W-What...is going...on?" Alden spoke lightly. Despite the pain, he managed to put his hands around his throat.

"I...can't...breathe." He uttered.

His whole body had become red. The veins on his body had bulged, and his muscles contracted. The veins on his face, arms, and legs were all bulged.

He was in immense pain, but he had no voice to scream.

Badum!

Alden felt a sting in his heart. His eyes already wide, widened even more. He instinctively placed his hands on his chest and tightly held his left side, just where the heart was.

Badum!

Another sting stung Alden in the heart.

'Is this how I will die?' Alden could not help but question as he lay on the bed with tears in his eyes.

His whole body was fiery red. And dark, sticky liquid was getting out of his body.

A few minutes passed, and Alden still lay on his back, unmoving.

He did not dare move as the pain was slowly fading away. He was too scared that if he moved, the horrible pain would return or take longer to go away.

In a few minutes, the pain disappeared. Only then, Alden dared move.

He moved a finger to test the waters. After confirming that he did not feel pain anymore, he rose from the bed.

"What the hell was that?" Alden questioned, sitting on the bed, his eyes widening as he still held his chest. The pain he felt in his heart deeply engraved itself in his mind. He felt like his heart almost busted. "I thought I di..."

[Ding]

[Congratulations, the host broke through the 1-star warrior realm]

[Your mental energy broke through the 1-star warrior realm]

[You received: Skill - Inspect]

[Your body broke through the 1-star warrior realm]

[You received: Beast Egg]

"Wha-What's this?" Alden could not believe his eyes. He could not believe what he was reading.

"Then, the pain I experienced was... System, why did I experience such pain?"

[Host, your body underwent strengthening because your mental strength broke through the 1-star warrior realm]

"Wait, wait, wait. I am confused." More questions arose in Alden's mind. "System, please explain in more detail. I remember I picked the Mental Cultivation technique, so why did my body strengthen as well?"

[Host, the pain you experienced was because your body underwent strengthening. But usually, no one experiences this pain.

The reason the host experienced this pain is because you cultivate only the mind. You forced your body to break through the 1-star warrior realm]

[When someone cultivates their body and absorbs the spiritual energy, the spiritual energy slowly nourishes the body, so there's no problem when breaking through

But host, when your mental energy broke through the 1-star warrior realm, your ordinary body could not contain it. So the body was forced to break through.]

[There was no spiritual energy in your body, and the host has never cultivated the body, so the body needed to forcefully break through to the 1-star warrior realm in one go. That was why the pain was so intense]

[The same goes for cultivating only the body. When the body realm passes a certain stage, the mental energy would be insufficient, so the mind would forcibly gather mental energy. The process is also very painful]

"I understand." Alden nodded in understanding. "Maybe I should have chosen the body cultivation technique. At least, in the beginning, I would have had an advantage."

[Host, when your mental energy hits the limit of what your body can contain, then your body will break through again]

"Anyway, system, what were those things I received?" Alden asked, his voice full of curiosity. If the cultivation technique he had received allowed him to break through to the 1-star warrior realm in just a little more than an hour, then the other things he received must be awesome.

Thud!

Just as Alden asked, out of nowhere, on the bed fell an egg.

"Whoaa!" Alden exclaimed in surprise at the sudden appearance of the egg.

The egg was large. So large that Alden could barely wrap his arms around it. It was a seven-colored, rainbow egg.

"This is a beast egg!" Alden barely held down his voice. At the moment, he wanted to shout and jump around like crazy. His eyes shone like stars in excitement. If he had a beast egg, the beast would hatch, and if the beast hatches, he would have a companion.

[Host, you received the skill Inspect and a Beast Egg]

"System, just what are you?" Alden could not help but question.

However, there was no reply from the system. Alden did not let this ruin his good mood. Nothing at the moment could ruin his good mood.

"Whatever you are, thank you system. I love you." Alden could not express the feelings he was feeling right now. The system helped him so much.

"System, what is this Inspect skill?" Alden focused once again on what he received.

[Skill: Inspect]

[Description - This skill allows the host to perceive the status window and properties of the chosen target]

"I see." Alden nodded in understanding. "This is a useful skill." He could not help but comment. "System, now that you mention it, show me my status window."

[Status Window]

[Name: Alden Garsia]

[Realm: 1-star warrior]

[Body Strength: 1-star warrior]

[Mental Strength: 1-star warrior]

[Beast Pet: None]

[Skills: Inspect]

"I am in the 1-star warrior realm," Alden muttered to himself, the joy evident in his voice. But that was when he noticed.

"System, on my system window, it shows that my Body Strength is 1-star warrior realm, and my Mental strength is 1-star warrior realm.

Then what is this Realm? Doesn't the Mental Strength and Body strength show my realm?

Or does this realm, signify my overall strength?"

[Incorrect, host. The Realm shows your true realm]

[The humans have not developed a device to measure mental energy. If the host's mental strength is 3-star warrior realm and the body is 1-star warrior realm, it will only show that the host is in the 1-star warrior realm]

[But the host's true realm will be the 3-star warrior realm because your mental strength is the 3-star warrior realm]

"I understand. So basically, the realm shows which, the Body or the Mental realm, is higher. At the moment, both the realm of the body and the mental realm are equal, so it shows a 1-star warrior." Alden concluded.

Sniff! Sniff!

As Alden took a deep breath, a disgusting smell reached his nose.

"Eww!" Alden turned all around, searching for the smell. "What smells like this? It smells like dead, rotten rats."

Following where the disgusting smell was the strongest, a realization befell him.

"No, no, no..." He slowly lowered his head to look at his body.

The smell was coming from his body.

His body was covered in a disgusting-looking, black, sticky liquid.

"What is this?" Alden questioned, the disgust evident in his voice. His whole body stank, and his blue uniform he wore for the first time today had become smelly.

But luckily for him, the bed was not stained with the sticky black liquid. 

Not wanting to risk dirtying his bed, Alden jumped off the bed.

"System, what is this disgusting black liquid?"

[Host, those are the impurities your body threw away in the form of sweat when you had undergone the strengthening]

"I better take a shower." After understanding the source of the black liquid, Alden walked to his wardrobe and took the clean uniform.

He also took the seven-colored egg, and with the clean uniform on top of the egg, Alden walked into the bathroom.